Tinder wants to shut down three-way dating app 3nder

Did you know there's a dating app called 3nder aimed at connecting curious couples with a third person? Well, now you do, and it's probably not too surprising that lawyers for Tinder, the popular dating app connecting individuals, don't like the similarity between their names.

U.K.-based 3nder, which claims about 500,000 members, says Tinder (which is owned by online dating giant Match Group and had 50 million members as of March) has demanded it cease operations and has threatened in a letter to sue in London's high court.

Spokespeople for Tinder and IAC didn't respond to messages seeking comment. But in a letter dated Dec. 16, Tinder's lawyers argue that the 3nder name is "phonetically ... closely similar to the TINDER Mark, as the obvious pronunciation .... rhymes with Tinder."

Dimo Trinov, the Bulgarian-born 3nder founder, argued in a reply that the name is a contraction of the words "three" and "friender" and that the most obvious pronunciation is therefore "threender." He also argues that Grindr, a dating app which caters to gay men, also has a similar name and hasn't drawn Tinder's legal fire.

Determined not to let the threat of an international trademark lawsuit go to waste, the eight-person team behind 3nder has created the social media hashtag #TinderSuckMySocks and is encouraging its members to tweet pictures of their dirty socks, because they're so busy they often forget to do their laundry. Get it?

3nder launched in 2014 and aims to give "curious couples" a way to explore options for opening up their relationships to a third person; it handles more than three million messages per month.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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